Everyone expected this Inquisition —

Dragon Age series continues in “late 2013” with Inquisition

New title to be built on top of the Battlefield 3 engine.

Publisher EA and developer BioWare have confirmed the long-expected third chapter in the popular Dragon Age RPG franchise will be titled Inquisition and released in "late 2013."

Executive Producer Mark Darrah writes on the official Dragon Age website that the Inquisition development team in Montreal and Edmonton is made up of "a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins." That team has been working on the game "in some way for about two years now with the bulk of our efforts ramping up about 18 months ago," Darrah continued.

Neither company offered details on what kind of gameplay or story changes players can expect for the next entry in the series, but they did announce that Inquisition will be powered by a new technology based on Frostbite 2, the same core graphics and gameplay engine used in Battlefield 3. The first two games in the series used an engine built from the ground up specifically for Dragon Age.

Interestingly, EA's announcement didn't specify which platforms Inquisition would be launching on (and EA representatives said they had nothing more to announce on the matter at this time). Current consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are definitely capable of running Frostbite 2-powered games, but new consoles from Sony and Microsoft that are expected to launch in late 2013 could give a bit more graphical oomph to the game.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

Between DA2 and ME3 both failing me, I shall not pre-order this. I look forward to seeing it in the $10 bin; $30 if I hear on GESC that it turned out to be good. But probably $5 just to spite them for their ME3 fubar.

I rather liked DA2, and don't quite get all the hate for it. I can't say I love EA's business practices, though, and I can't afford $50 for games in the first place, but I might still pick it up eventually, once the price drops.

Instead focus on good artistic direction, I would much prefer that, GW2 isn't all that intensive on my machine, and it looks beautiful, DA could do something like that bright colorful amazing world.

DA2s combat system was fine, bosses had a bit of excessive health on higher difficulties is about it and boss assassins will drive you up the wall and each individual story was pretty good. The progression from one story to another however was sloppy and gave a huge feeling of disconnect, voice acting in DA2 was top notch and femHawke's voice is one my favorite in gaming right now, I like her even more than Hale!

DAO's story was far superior though, it was epic and felt connected the whole way through.

*I* however will NOT be continuing with the Dragon Age series after the twin fiascos of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. Bioware games were normally day one purchase for me, but no more. It seems once you are bought by EA it's just a slow march to death for your game development studio. Oh well.

Wonder how EA will manage to force multiplayer into this one though. (Especially since we know based on the statement from few days ago that they are no longer interested in developing single player only games.)

I am looking forward to it, actually. I must admit that I was disappointed with the ENDING of ME3, but the actual game up to that point was pretty top notch. As for Dragon Age - I was a major DA-1 addict, but found myslef unable to get past Chapter 1 in DA-2. I need to go back and try and finish that game. I can't really put my finger on it - the game just did not grab me like the first one did.

Sound great. I liked the story better in da1, but the combat and the way the story was presented more in da2.

I thought the combat got old in DA2. Stopped playing it soon after the "epic" (*cough*) trip to the underworld caverns that they built up to, and then was over in, like, 10 minutes. The strategic element was reduced to nearly nothing and it wound up being a hack and slash slogfest where you just use the same moves over and over. You *could* try strategy and varied moves, but there was no point. That and the repeated environments and being stuck in one city... meh...

*I* however will NOT be continuing with the Dragon Age series after the twin fiascos of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. Bioware games were normally day one purchase for me, but no more. It seems once you are bought by EA it's just a slow march to death for your game development studio. Oh well.

Wonder how EA will manage to force multiplayer into this one though. (Especially since we know based on the statement from few days ago that they are no longer interested in developing single player only games.)

I am looking forward to it, actually. I must admit that I was disappointed with the ENDING of ME3,

Also thought the ME3 ending was a trainwreck, but I also felt the rest of the game was flawed. The tracking of quests out of the citadel was a mess. Many of the levels were really poorly designed. Just a general lack of polish over the whole experience.

Not sure I understand all the hate against DA2 taking place in one town. Might as well hate GTA for not doing a cross country trip while you're at it. Problem with DA2 was the plot was completely on rails. The only differences were small flavor things that you'd expect from an MMO. Congratulations xxAwesomeMcHugexx, you saved our town from the vast army of 15 orcs! Your actions in Fable 2 felt like they had more impact on the story which is weird considering how the game boiled down to a chose the door to get a prize ending.

Never played DA2, but if this game pulls an ME and tracks previous saves, I'll definitely be picking it up. I've been enjoying the hell out of ME3 and how my choices effect the other characters. Also, I loved the first ending I chose (Synthesis). Ah well, to each his/her own.

I'm just glad it's still a ways out. Hopefully that means it won't be an unconscionable rush job like DA2. Crossing my fingers, anyways.

Molybedenum wrote:

I think they need to focus more on plot, less on inter-party dating. In DA:O, it was cute, but became annoying in DA2.

I think DA (along with some other Bioware games in general) has an unusually large number of female fans, and humanizing touches like that are part of the reason why. They still need to focus on doing it well, though.

Hmmm. My only exposure to Obsidian is Neverwinter Nights 2. I hated that game. There were so many things wrong with the UI that it made enjoying the game impossible. So, given that experience, I guess at best is I will watch the Eternity project with skepticism. For reference, I loved NWN1 and still play it today.

BoT: I actually never finished DA and never purchased DA:O. I tried to get into it, even played it for about 30 hours but something just didn't click with me. It was way too boring. Call me a turncoat or whatever, but I loved the interplay of the characters in your party in DA:2, although Isabella did piss me off quite often. The combat was awesome in terms of fluidity. The blood spatter effects were completely juvenile IMO, but I can overlook that.

If they can combine the better aspects of 1 & 2, and it sounds like they are if the game has already been in development for 2 years, I'll definitely play the third installment baring any draconian DRM (EA is supposedly only doing an online serial check at install now). Only after the first adopters get it and review it of course.

*I* however will NOT be continuing with the Dragon Age series after the twin fiascos of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. Bioware games were normally day one purchase for me, but no more. It seems once you are bought by EA it's just a slow march to death for your game development studio. Oh well.

Wonder how EA will manage to force multiplayer into this one though. (Especially since we know based on the statement from few days ago that they are no longer interested in developing single player only games.)

What a fresh and original perspective that I have never heard before!

Did I say something there that was untrue? There was a statement from some EA manager (forget who exactly) about a week ago where he said that he has not and will not greenlight any game that is single player only. Forget Mass Effect 3, look at Dead Space 3 instead. Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are judged to be relative failures by many, certainly on artistic level if not economically--but you can only do this so long before people stop buying.

Didn't EA state that they were done with offline-style games? Would that turn DA3 into some 'always on' game?

You misunderstood the quote. They did say that all future games will have some sort of online component, but not that all games would be online only or have MP. Keep in mind that they audience at the time was investors. They don't know the difference between SP and MP. What they were talking about when they said "online component" is simply any online interaction past the point of sale. Things like the ability to download DLC or to interface with the "social gaming" crap on EA Origin.

The original Dragon's Age was a great game, and set kind of a high bar, which made following it up difficult. Of course, in my opinion, Dragon Age 2 was a big turd, so it felt like they didn't even try. I guess I'll have to wait and see on this one, it'd be nice to see some gameplay.

*I* however will NOT be continuing with the Dragon Age series after the twin fiascos of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. Bioware games were normally day one purchase for me, but no more. It seems once you are bought by EA it's just a slow march to death for your game development studio. Oh well.

Wonder how EA will manage to force multiplayer into this one though. (Especially since we know based on the statement from few days ago that they are no longer interested in developing single player only games.)

What a fresh and original perspective that I have never heard before!

Did I say something there that was untrue? There was a statement from some EA manager (forget who exactly) about a week ago where he said that he has not and will not greenlight any game that is single player only. Forget Mass Effect 3, look at Dead Space 3 instead. Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are judged to be relative failures by many, certainly on artistic level if not economically--but you can only do this so long before people stop buying.

So what exactly do you disagree with?

The troll. You are feeding it. That is like stepping on grass that has a sign that says, "don't step on grass."